


Mistletoe & Way Too Much Wine

by vic_amy_z



Category: Franklin & Bash
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2012-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-28 17:53:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vic_amy_z/pseuds/vic_amy_z
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the annual Christmas Party at the Man Cave, a carefully placed piece of mistletoe yields some surprising results...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mistletoe & Way Too Much Wine

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Prompt #1 on the Livejournal Franklin & Bash Holiday Ficlet Fest, but with a slight twist!

At just after one in the morning, the festive party at the Man Cave was finally starting to wind down. The tunes had been switched to something with fewer beats per minute and just a handful of people, who were either too drunk or too 'busy' to leave, remained. Picking her way through the detritus, Carmen made her way, slightly unsteadily, outside to the hot tub, only to find Peter and Jared already in there.

'Hey! No hogging the bubbles, guys,' she said, shrugging off her robe and quickly slipping into the warm water. LA didn't have much in the way of seasons, but it _was_ December so the air was cooler than Carmen would have liked, especially now that she'd changed into a bikini. 'Oops!' she said, sitting down rather more quickly than she intended. There might be the teensiest chance that she'd had a bit too much to drink.

'Let me guess - Pindar's Party Punch?' Jared asked, trying not to laugh.

'Oh yeah,' Carmen nodded, thinking of the many glasses of pink deliciousness that she'd already consumed that evening. 'The man might be frightened of birds but he makes a damn good champagne cocktail!'

She closed her eyes and let her head fall back, the water warming her skin and the bubbles gently massaging it. She opened them again at the sound of someone clearing their throat. Carmen looked up... and up... Hanna Linden stood on the deck, wearing a bikini and a smile, holding a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

'Is there room for one more in there?' she asked, in a way that somehow implied a very naughty sexual invitation. How the hell did she manage to do that?

'Sure, I don't think we've reached our 'beautiful women' quota in here yet,' Peter replied with a smile, getting up to offer Hanna his hand.

Carmen was decidedly put out that no one had bothered to get up and offer her a... damn, those legs really did go on forever! And judging by the way that Jared had just had to surreptitiously cross his legs, she wasn't the only one who'd noticed!

Hanna sat down next to Carmen and immediately offered her a glass. Okay, so maybe she could put up with the preferential treatment that Hanna was getting; the woman _did_ come bearing alcohol. They popped the champagne cork, both giggling as the bubbles spilled out of the top of the bottle, the contrast of temperatures making Carmen draw in a sharp breath as the cold liquid ran over her wrist. She bent her head and caught the remaining drops with her tongue - no point in letting good champagne go to waste.

For a split second, an incredibly vivid and erotic image of ice-cold champagne being poured across Hanna's naked breasts as she licked it off flashed into Carmen's mind. What the hell did Pindar do to that punch?! And one look at the matching expressions on Peter and Jared's faces as they watched, left Carmen wondering if they somehow had a portal into her brain! She shook her head and the image disappeared, leaving her to join in the conversation as if nothing had happened and she hadn't just briefly fantasised herself into the plot of a really bad porn movie...

They chatted for a while about anything and everything; what a great party it'd been, their plans for the holidays, who'd seen Damien getting poured into a cab before eleven. Then Carmen noticed some odd looks passing between Peter and Jared. Oh god, they were having another one of their weird _'not actually speaking out loud'_ conversations again.

'Well, I hate to be the one to have to point it out,' Peter began, like he was really struggling with his conscience, 'But you two ladies _are_ sitting under the mistletoe.'

Carmen looked up and saw that, indeed, someone had carefully hung a piece of mistletoe over one of the many strands of lights that criss-crossed the yard, so that it was positioned directly over the hot tub. She wondered which one of them had done it...

'I don't think you can say that it's definitely over our side,' Carmen reasoned.

'Yeah, we can!' replied Jared, as both he and Peter oh-so-subtly leaned back a little.

Carmen did her best to send them a look that said _'I will make you both very sorry if you keep this up'_ , but either _she'd_ had too much to drink or _they_ had, because it didn't seem to be having the desired effect.

As Hanna looked at her with one eyebrow raised, almost in question, the part of Carmen's brain that had been going, _'Oh, hell no!'_ suddenly seemed to be less vocal. And there was now another, completely separate part of her brain, that seemed to be going, _'Well, maybe...'_ Before she had time to fully resolve the argument that was currently going on in her head, Hanna smiled at her, shrugged, and said 'Well, it _is_ traditional I suppose, so, Merry Christmas', before gently pressing her lips to Carmen's.

Her brain might have been going, _'Okay, what the hell is happening here?'_ but apparently that didn't stop her mouth from returning the kiss, or from reciprocating when she felt Hanna's tongue brush against her lips. As the kiss deepened, Carmen was vaguely aware of the fact that Peter and Jared had been reduced to making incoherent noises, and she was very glad that they couldn't see the hand that was gently stroking it's way up her thigh beneath the water.

The kiss was somehow both soft and gentle and yet still passionate; nothing like any kiss that she'd ever had before, and it was all Carmen could do to stop herself from climbing into Hanna's lap as she trailed her fingers over Hanna's slender neck, pushing them into her hair. When they finally broke apart, Carmen found herself staring into deep brown eyes that were dilated with arousal and sparkling with mischief in equal measure.

'Wow...' Carmen breathed, before she could stop herself.

'Seconded...' Jared said, raising his hand.

'And whatever the next number is after that one,' Peter added, raising his too.

Hanna just smiled and reached for the champagne bottle to refill both their glasses, which she did as though nothing had happened. Something about that smile told Carmen that the fun wasn't over just yet. When Peter and Jared had finished trying to look like hot women made out with each other in front of them all the time, Hanna said casually, 'You know, it _is_ traditional to have one kiss for each berry on the mistletoe...'

Jared grinned suggestively at her words. 'Well, it'd be a shame to let them go to waste,' he said, and wasted no time in taking hold of Hanna's hand and pulling her towards him for a kiss. And after a couple of seconds, it became clear that it wasn't a kiss that was going to end any time soon.

'Oh, that's just great!' Peter said in a tone of exasperation. 'So I'm supposed to just sit here while you get to make out with the only woman who's not Carmen? Thanks buddy!'

Jared didn't answer because he appeared to have his mouth full. He did manage to take one hand off Hanna long enough to give Peter the finger though! Alcohol or not, Carmen still had the presence of mind to be offended that Peter didn't even consider her an option.

'Firstly - hey!' she began, 'And secondly, I guess I can take one for the team if it'll shut you the hell up!' Before she could rethink the monumentally bad idea that was kissing Peter, Carmen launched herself at him and just went for it.

For a second they were both frozen in a tableau, their lips touching. Then Carmen felt two strong arms encircling her; pulling her in closer as one Peter Bash, either too drunk or too horny to care, was kissing her hard, and it felt... nowhere near as bad as she'd feared. In fact, it felt pretty good. She was so relieved to find that it wasn't actually like kissing her brother, that she hadn't really processed anything else about the situation. So it came as a slight surprise to her to realise that not only was Peter an excellent kisser, but that he was also in the process of exploring her mouth with his tongue. And that not only was she letting him but that she also appeared to be pressed up against him, one arm wound around his body and the other around his neck.

Eventually, Carmen did have to stop the hand that was working its way down her back towards her ass though - she was a good friend, not a free-for-all buffet! Peter pulled away, looking slightly sheepish as he loosened his hold on Carmen. When she moved away from him a little, she realised that both Hanna and Jared were looking at them with amusement.

'So,' Hanna asked, that same mischievous grin still on her face, 'How was it, taking one for the team?'

'Yeah,' Carmen said, nodding, 'Not bad. I'd recommend him to a friend.' She wasn't prepared to admit that she could still feel Peter's lips on hers and that her skin still tingled where he'd touched her. But she _was_ going to have to have words with Pindar about that damn punch!

'Not bad?!' Peter said, clearly outraged, 'You were getting some of my best moves there!'

'Yeah, I could tell. And if you dusted my ass for fingerprints it would tell you the same thing too!'

'Well,' Jared began, 'Strictly speaking, you don't leave fingerprints underwater, so...'

'NOT the point I was trying to make, Jared...' She replied, glaring at him.

'Oh right, gotcha...'

Peter just shrugged towards Jared with a grin, like he couldn't see what the problem was. Hanna was refilling their glasses and trying not to laugh. Carmen took the opportunity to move away from Peter and was just taking a sip of champagne when Hanna said, 'You know, there _is_ still one more berry on that mistletoe...'

Carmen almost choked on the bubbles. 'Oh no, I might be drunk enough to make out with one of these two once, but there's no way I'm drunk enough to do it again!'

'And it really wouldn't be fair if I did it either,' Hanna continued, 'I mean, one of you would miss out.' There was a pause. Hanna's eyes flicked briefly over towards Carmen. 'Maybe you two should just kiss each other?' she suggested, as though it were the most logical conclusion.

They both opened their mouths but Jared got there first. 'Yeah, I think it'd probably be okay if we just left that last berry on there,' he said, resolutely not looking at Peter at all.

'Dude!' Peter said, the protestation impossible to miss. 'What? Suddenly I'm not good enough for you? Carmen said she'd recommend me to a friend...'

Carmen was sure that whatever Peter was about to say before Jared beat him to it, it wasn't that!

'Well, if you're gonna whine about it...' Jared said, taking approximately two seconds to close the gap between them and plant a kiss on Peter's lips. Carmen expected them to pull away again pretty quickly, but suddenly there was a lot more than just a polite peck on the lips going on. Either they were very drunk or this was something that they'd been building up to for a while, because whatever this was, it involved a lot of tongue. And hands!

Suddenly feeling like it was impolite to stare, Carmen happened to flick her eyes upwards, catching sight of the mistletoe. She leaned over towards Hanna, who apparently had no problems with watching Peter and Jared, and said quietly, 'You do know that there are only three berries on that mistletoe, right?'

'Yeah, I know,' Hanna replied, keeping her voice just above a whisper, 'I've just always wondered what it would take to get those two to get it on!'

 _Not much, apparently_ , Carmen thought, as neither of them had even bothered to check Hanna's ability to count. She found that her eyes were drawn back to the pair of them, wondering if they were ever going to come up for air as much as anything else.

'Damn, they really need to get a room,' she said finally, when it became clear that Peter and Jared were definitely working through some issues.

'Shh!' Hanna said with a grin, 'Don't give them any ideas...!'

She raised her glass and touched it to Carmen's in celebration, and then they both settled back to enjoy the show...

 **~~~~MERRY CHRISTMAS~~~~**


End file.
